I ended August with a bang adding two new species for the year to my Hampshire
County list and getting some decent shorebird diversity considering the weather
was nice. With the forecast for heavy rain this afternoon through this evening
and into tomorrow I figured I would head out early today to take advantage of
the still low levels of the Connecticut River. I decided to stop at the
Honeypot at dawn to try to catch up with the Clay colored Sparrow I had there a
few days ago but no luck. Instead one of the first birds I found was a Marsh
Wren that showed itself briefly and allowed a few blurry shots before it
disappeared again. I got a couple more very brief looks but no better
photos. The Marsh Wren became species #221 for the county this year. As I
continued poking around the area near the 90 degree turn I had a fly over,
calling American Golden Plover that drifted off to the south without ever
showing itself...perhaps it went to the East Meadows somewhere? The American
Golden Plover added my second new county species for the year becoming
#222...quite an impressive day to get two new species in one day this time of year! Other species of note around a small area of the Honeypot included around
90 Bobolinks, a dull Yellow Warbler and a few Indigo Buntings.

A stop by the Connecticut River found the water levels perfect to attract
shorebirds and I had six species there including two Semipalmated Plovers, three
Killdeer, four Spotted Sandpipers, six Solitary Sandpipers, two Lesser Yellowlegs and 21 Least Sandpipers. With the AGPL seen at the Honeypot I
managed seven species of shorebird this morning which became my highest total
for diversity so far this season. Other notables around the river included a couple Great Egrets. A stop back at the Honeypot didn't produce anything new (nor did it provide any better looks at species seen earlier). Although the heavy rain showers and
thunderstorms forecast for the next few days will raise the river levels and
wipe out the mudflats perhaps the rain will knock down some shorebirds into some
flooded fields somewhere in the valley? It will certainly be worth
checking. I still have several species of shorebirds I would love to catch up with.

Yesterday I spent the early morning hours hitting several spots starting off at
Lake Wallace before dawn and then over to the Connecticut River in Hadley, the
Honeypot (briefly) and then to Winsor Dam. Despite being out for just a few
hours I found some good stuff including six species of shorebirds along the
Connecticut River. Shorebird species this morning included a Semipalmated
Plover, two Killdeer, three Spotted Sandpipers, seven Solitary Sandpipers, two
Lesser Yellowlegs and 21 Least Sandpipers. Besides the shorebirds the river
produced 11 Wood Ducks, 36 Mallards, a couple Great Egrets and a Great Blue
Heron. The fog moved in while I was there and knocked visibility down quite a
bit which made viewing a bit tough at times.

Pied billed Grebe, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 30, 2014

Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 30, 2014

My dawn visit to Lake Wallace produced 33 Wood Ducks, 58 Mallards, a Pied billed
Grebe and seven Green Herons among the other species there.

Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Aug 30, 2014

A ride up to the Honeypot found the area almost totally fog free. I spent some
time scanning from the top of the dike and turned up at least 300 swallows of
four species with most being Tree Swallows (lesser numbers of Bank, Barn and
Northern Rough winged Swallows). No shorebirds at all in any of the fields I
scanned through but with many fields still full of crops I guess it isn't too
surprising. Other notables included 55+ Bobolinks wheeling around before
settling into a weedy field. I didn't spend any time looking for the Clay
colored Sparrow I found there on Friday but it appeared others were looking.

Common Loons, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Aug 30, 2014

Common Loon, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Aug 30, 2014

A final stop at Winsor Dam produced three vocal Common Loons flying around the area before disappearing to the north...just a taste of the waterfowl migration season coming up.

With north winds last night and the radar lit up with migrants I had high hopes
of finding some good stuff this morning and I did indeed find some good
stuff. I started out the morning on Orchard Hill at UMASS (before the hordes
descended on the campus for the start of the move in process). Fairly quiet
there although a Wilson's Warbler and decent numbers of Red eyed Vireos added
some excitement. Without too much on Orchard Hill I headed over to the Honeypot
to try my luck there (with a brief stop along Huntington road which looks good
now to attract stuff but was quiet). I scanned through several fields looking
for shorebirds but no luck. I instead concentrated on the numerous passerines
that were located in the fields near the 90 degree corner. Highlights
included a Clay colored Sparrow (quite unusual but annual), 18 Savannah Sparrows,
a Vesper Sparrow, a dozen Indigo Buntings and 86 Bobolinks. It looks like the Honeypot will be productive once again this year.

I then had one of my better shorebird days along the river in Hadley where I
caught up with five species of shorebird (yeah...not too impressive but my best
diversity yet). Shorebirds included two Lesser Yellowlegs, 26 Least Sandpipers,
half a dozen Solitary Sandpipers, five Spotted Sandpipers and four Killdeer. Other
notables around included two Great Egrets, 48 Mallards and 21 Wood Ducks.

Made a few brief stops on my way into work this morning with the most productive spot being along the Connecticut River where I had a Lesser Yellowlegs, a Solitary Sandpiper, a few Spotted Sandpipers and nine Least Sandpipers plus a couple each of Great Egret and Great Blue Heron. The Honeypot was very quiet but I literally stopped for just a couple minutes to scan a few fields so there may have been stuff around that I missed.

It is the time of year once again for me to look back fondly at an epic day of birding that occurred at Winsor Dam during the passage of Hurricane Irene through the area back in 2011. It is hard to believe it has been three years already...time flies! A link to the list for the day is below:http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S8750565

Stopped briefly this morning along the Connecticut River in
Hadley and with the water level down enough to expose some mudflats, I had some
shorebirds including a Greater Yellowlegs, a Lesser Yellowlegs, four Solitary
Sandpipers and four Spotted Sandpipers plus I had a Great Egret in the same
area.Perhaps something else of note
will show up following the passage of a cold front tonight?

Finally had a good night of watching Common Nighthawks here at home with a total of at least 170+ moving by both low and high and mainly moving north or west. I always love to see the nighthawks move through in late summer...a sure sign fall is right around the corner. At least it felt like summer today with temperatures reaching into the upper 80's.